Rockets notes: Bickerstaff gives Terry a bigger role

The Rockets made one significant change to the rotation in Tuesday's 107-97 loss to the Sacramento Kings even before interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff benched his starters early in the second half. Bickerstaff moved guard Jason Terry ahead of Marcus Thornton in the rotation, citing the Rockets' play of late with Terry on the floor and his leadership with the team struggling.

Terry checked in with the Rockets trailing 11-2, helping to guide the turnaround in the first quarter. The Rockets led by as many as six points before breaking down with a rash of turnovers in the second quarter, never fully recovering.

"I think Jet has been really good for us," Bickerstaff said. "He does a lot of the little things. He does a lot of the intangibles, leadership. All those things when he is out on the floor have been very key to the success that we had, the success that we had last year. I thought it was important that we get him more minutes and we get him on the floor. Marcus just happened to be the casualty of that."

Bickerstaff also changed the starting lineup, giving Donatas Motiejunas his first start of the season and bringing Clint Capela and Terrence Jones in off the bench. But he said that change was to limit Capela's minutes after several days during which he had food poisoning.

More Information

Scouting report: At L.A. Lakers

When/where: 9:30 p.m.; Staples Center.

TV/radio: TNT; 740 AM, 790 AM and 850 AM (Spanish).

Rockets update: They have won six of seven games against the Lakers, and their four-game winning streak at Staples Center is their longest on the road against the Lakers. … In Saturday's meeting with the Lakers, the Rockets had season highs for scoring (126), shooting percentage (52.2 percent) and fast-break points (35). … Donatas Motiejunas on Tuesday got his first start of the season, with Clint Capela limited by food poisoning. Motiejunas averaged 12.7 points and six rebounds as a starter last season. In his past three games, he averaged 11.3 points on 59.1 percent shooting.

Lakers update: In his past five games, Kobe Bryant is averaging 18.2 points, five rebounds and 4.2 assists while making 47.2 percent of his shots. … The Lakers' win over Milwaukee on Tuesday snapped a six-game losing streak. … Guard Jordan Clarkson returned from an ankle injury and started, making five of 14 shots against the Bucks.

Statistically speaking: The Rockets' 97 points Tuesday snapped a streak of 10 straight games scoring at least 100, their longest run of 100-point games since the 1995-96 season. The Rockets have scored at least 100 points in 12 of the 15 games under interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff after reaching 100 in four of their first 11 games. The Rockets are 12-4 when scoring 100 points.

Read More

"Clint, because he was battling the illness (Monday) and the dehydration and had to go to the emergency room, I didn't want to have to put him out there and have him have to play too many minutes," Bickerstaff said. "I wanted to have him fresh."

Big men havesmall impact

With the Kings using small lineups through most of Tuesday's game, playing Omri Casspi at power forward in the wake of center Willie Cauley-Stein's injury, the Rockets hoped their big men could take advantage inside. They didn't, with some of the Rockets' best stretches coming when they had no centers or power forwards on the floor and used Trevor Ariza defensively on Sacramento's DeMarcus Cousins

"We have to find an advantage on the other end, and we weren't able to do that," interim coach J.B.Bickerstaff said. "If they are going to put small guys on our bigger guys, our bigger guys have to be effective down in the paint. We have to punish them. I don't think we did a good enough job of that."

Jonathan Feigen has been the Rockets beat writer since 1998 and a basketball nut since before Willis Reed limped out for Game 7. He became a sports writer because the reporter that was supposed to cover the University of Delaware basketball team decided to instead play one more season of college lacrosse and has never looked back.

Feigen, who has won APSE, APME and United States Basketball Writers Association awards from El Campo to Houston, came to Texas in 1981 to cover the Rice Birds, was Sports Editor in Garland before moving to Dallas to cover everything from the final hurrah of the Southwest Conference to SMU after the death penalty.

After joining the Houston Chronicle in 1990, Feigen has covered the demise of the SWC, the rise of the Big 12 and the Rockets at their championship best.